Trump’s EOs, Agency Appointments Impact Employers

Although President Donald Trump’s second term has only just begun, his actions have already had an impact on employers.

Within hours of taking office, Trump issued “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” an Executive Order (EO) which mandates that the federal government recognize only two biological sexes, male and female, as determined at conception.

The EO also directs all federal agencies to replace the term “gender” with “sex” in official documents, requires the Attorney General to guide federal agencies to reverse any policies that allowed gender-identity-based access to single-sex space (such as bathrooms), ensures that government-issued identification (like passports) reflect the biological sex assigned at birth, orders the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Department of Labor (DOL) and other agencies to “prioritize investigations and litigation to enforce the rights and freedoms identified” in the order; and rescinds a host of guidance documents published during the administration of President Joseph Biden, including .

The next day, the President issued “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” an EO that rescinded EO 11246, which for almost 60 years required government agencies to include a provision that the contractor agrees not to discriminate against and to take affirmative action to prevent discrimination against any employee or applicant because of certain protected characteristics in every government contract.

Further, the new EO ordered the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to “immediately cease: (A) [p]romoting ‘diversity’; (B) [h]olding federal contractors and subcontractors responsible for taking ‘affirmative action’; and (C) [a]llowing or encouraging federal contractors and subcontractors to engage in workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin.”

While specific to federal contractors, the new EO aims to discourage private employers from engaging in unlawful diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and practices, directing the Attorney General and heads of federal agencies to submit a report with recommendations for enforcing civil rights laws and taking other appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end unlawful DEI programming.

The report should include key sectors of concern within each agency’s jurisdiction and the “most egregious” DEI practitioners in each sector of concern, as well as a plan or measures to deter unlawful DEI programming or principles and potentially appropriate federal lawsuits, intervention or regulatory action.

For employers, the President’s appointments to federal agencies have also signaled a change of direction in terms of enforcement. Andrea Lucas, tapped as the Acting Chair of the EEOC, released a statement with her priorities including “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination” and “protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination.”

Trump fired the Biden-appointed General Counsels for the EEOC and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). He also went a step further and fired appointed members of the both the NLRB and the EEOC.

In addition to facing potential lawsuits from the former members, neither the NLRB nor the EEOC now has a quorum, limiting some of their actions.

To read “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” click .

To read “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” click .

Why it matters: Employers should keep a close eye on the new administration and federal agencies as the landscape of employment law changes.